North Penn High School recognized by Washington Post as one of nation's most challenging

TOWAMENCIN — For the fourth consecutive year, North Penn High School has been recognized as one of America’s most challenging high schools by The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews. It’s joined by Souderton Area High School, which was added to the list of challenging high schools this year for the first time.

Each year, Jay Mathews of The Washington Post ranks high schools by dividing the number of Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given in the school year by the number of seniors graduating that year. The rankings also take into consideration the percentage of students who receive lunch subsidies and the percentage of graduating seniors who passed a college-level test while in high school. The list originally ranked only schools in Washington, D.C., but it was expanded in 2011 to include schools from across the country.

There are 2,050 schools on the list, representing the top 9 percent of the country’s 22,000 high schools; only 35 of those schools are in Pennsylvania. North Penn was ranked 1,697 in the nation and 26 in the state, compared to last year’s ranks of 1,697 and 22, respectively. Souderton was ranked 1,553 in the nation and 21 in Pennsylvania.

The Washington Post notes that the list does not measure overall quality of a school, but how well a school prepares its students for college. Souderton Area High School prepares its students through its Pathway 360 program, said Principal Sam Varano, which encourages students to seek out academic challenges. Through the program, the students get to hear from guest speakers, hold internships and more. “Kids are finding relevance in their experiences that oftentimes they’re having outside of the classroom,” he said of the program. “That relevance is encouraging them to seek more rigor.”

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Although this year’s AP exams won’t be administered for another few weeks, Souderton students have already registered for more than 1,000 exams, compared to 798 exams in 2013, Varano said. That increase comes with no increase in student population. “We’ve made no conscious effort to increase our AP numbers,” he said. “I believe it’s happened largely because of the relevance students are feeling from the (Pathway) program.”

North Penn, on the other hand, has been actively working to increase student participation in AP courses for the last decade or so, said Principal Burt Hynes. He defines that participation as both enrolling in the courses and also taking the AP exams, as students are not required to take the exam at the end of the course.

North Penn has tried to increase those numbers in a variety of ways. One strategy has been to offer as many AP courses as possible — the most recent count is 23. “Word of mouth has also helped,” Hynes said. “(Students) hear from their peers how interesting the course is.”

A major benefit of taking AP courses is receiving college credit, though that credit varies by college and depends on the students’ scores. “Students begin to realize that you can complete an entire semester of college during high school (through AP exams),” Hynes said.

Varano was happy that Souderton was added to The Washington Post’s list, but he believes the ratings “aren’t that important,” he said. “These kinds of rankings will come and go. I think we’ve got a strong, robust program and that kids will continue to achieve and perhaps improve upon their achievements.” He noted that being recognized on the list is a good way to get the Souderton name out there, which will allow students to be more competitive in college admissions.

Because North Penn has been on the list for the past three years, Hynes wasn’t surprised about this year’s recognition. “As we look ahead to next year,” he said, “I can make a pretty good prediction that we’ll be on the list again.”